Metamorphosis of Latin America's Intellectuals

Author(s): James Petras

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 24, No. 14 (Apr. 8, 1989), pp. 719-722
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4394634
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 Metamorphosis of Latin America's and a political challenge to incumbent
liberal-conservative regimes (which might
terminate debt payments), foundations
Intellectuals poured new money into the institutes.

James Petras COMMON THEMES AND POLICY

PRESCRIPTIONS

While the first wave of external funding

Two diametrically opposed intellectual types serve as the model was directed at criticising the economic
for' Latin America's new generation of the 1990s-the organic model and human rights violations of the
intellectuals of the 1960s and the institutional intellectuals of the military dictatorships, the second wave was

1980s. directed at the study of new social move-

ments, while the third wave of funding
centred on the democratisation process and
IN Latin America twenty years ago it was analysis continued to collect data and the debt. The studies that emerged form a
virtually impossible to find a leftist intellec- publish social scientific studies. general pattern: the studies of the dictator-
tual willing to accept financing from The larger, more established institutes ship focused on its politically repressive
externally-funded foundations. Today it is were controlled and directed by centre-left feature and not on its economic and military
rare to find a researcher connected with any intellectuals who had developed associations ties to western European and North
-established institute who is not financed by and linkages with overseas funding sources American elites. State violence was analysed
one of the major or minor European or from the late sixties and early seventies. The in terms of human rights violations, not as
North American foundations. And for most growth and success of these research centres expressions of class domination-as part of
of those who are not funded, it is not led to the proliferation of a host of new the class struggle, as class violence. The
because they object but because they have institutes-a literal alphabet soup of political base that emerged from. these
not yet established the proper contacts or acronyms. A broad spectrum of writers, studies posed the issue as between conten-
connections. political intellectuals, and economic analysts ding political conceptions, -a conflict bet-
The dictatorships of the seventies initially joined the rush to obtain foreign funds. With ween liberal democracy and military dic-
played a major role in changing Latin the return of many intellectuals who had tatorship: the deliberate dissociation of the
America's intellectual world. In the first lived abroad, the number of institutes class structure from state power was justified'
place, military dictatorships killed or jailed multiplied. Overseas the exiled intellectuals by the notion that the political sphere was
many of the leading intellectuals, particular- had in many cases received government or 'autonomous' from civil society.
ly those linked with social activists. Those foundation funding and were in close Studies of social movements continued in
who were jailed (and were fortunate enough collaboration with established social- the same fashion. These studies claimed that
to be released), exiled, or expelled from democratic and liberal intellectual currents. the social movements were counterposed to
universities lost their principal source of in- A direct connection was established class politics, that the class structure from
come. Journals were closed; movements, between the institutional integration ofwhich the they emerged was 'heterogeneous'
trade unions, and political parties were displaced Latin American intellectuals into and that the struggles of the social move-
decimated; and magazines and newspapers the liberal/social democratic welfare state ments were far-removed from older ideolo-
were shut down or heavily censored. The and their increasing consumption of post- gical politics. The political line in regard to
intellectual class was politically and Marxist intellectual currents. Upon their social movements was in the first instance
economically vulnerable and increasingly return to Latin America, these overseas that they should separate themselves from
disposed to accept external funding as a structural and ideological networks became the ideological (radical) political parties;
mode of survival. essential ingredients in the further expansion later, with the rise of liberal electoral parties,
On the other hand, due to the pressure of of new institutes. These networks were the political line shifted and the movements
international public opinion (including crucial becaqse the economic conditions were advised to channel their attention
human rights activists, the church, political within Latin America in the post-military toward the 'struggle for democracy. The
parties, etc), government aid agencies in period were highly unfavourable. The 'autonomy of social movements' was pro-
Europe and Canada as well as private foun- economic issues were particularly sensitive moted when the researchers sought to
dations in the United States increased their because the returning intellectuals experienc- separate them from the revolutionary left;
funding and liberalised their ideological ed a sharp decline in standard of living in 'participation in broad democratic fronts'
criteria regarding potential beneficiaries inrelation to what they had been accustomed became the formula the researchers promo-
Latin America. Liberalised aid programmes to in Europe, Mexico, Venezuela, or North ted when liberal electoral politics came to
and regimes' purges of political institutions America. the fore.
and movements be-came the basis for the In summary, the example of the econo- The third phase of funding-on demo-
creation of a new intellectual world: the mically successful established institutes, the cratisation-was the most blatantly
externally-funded research centre. For leverage derived from externally-based con- ideological: the research focused on a set of
politically and economically vulnerable in-tacts, the unfavourable economic conditions formulas which justified accommodation
tellectuals, this was in some cases a life-saver: in public universities, and the desire to with local and foreign military and economic
ties to European government funding agen- cushion declining living standards-all these elites as the only 'possible' viable option,
cies or United States foundations provided factors propelled the large influx of returnedthus freezing the process of transformation
political protection and a steady source of radical exiles into the increasingly com- to a transaction between conservative
income that allowed many to survive and petitive game of preparing proposals for civilians and the military.
pursue a broad array of research topics. The external funding. Some research institute- In brief, the research conducted by the
immediate results of this marriage between oriented intellectuals were paradoxically Latin American institutes reveals a common
the liberal and social democratic founda- aided by the deepening economic crises, set of themes and a common set of political
tions and the vulnerable intellectuals all which deepened the poverty and misery of prescriptions. The studies contain a great
seqmed for the good: while the universitiesthe urban and rural poor, thus increasing deal of data and information, but it is
and public institutions were being savaged, political concern among external funding embedded in an ideological framework that
islands of rationality, science, and critical agencies. Fearing a new wave of social unrest is heavily biased by the political agendas of

Economic and Political Weekyv April 8. 19S9 719

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the external funding agencies. At each point
the external funders chose topics of parti-
cular concern to their foreign policy and
corporate decision-makers. They sought to
create politically acceptable alternatives to
the dictatorships, and put in place political
forces capable of containing future chal-
lenges to western liberal market hegemony.
Their basic goal was to establish ideological
hegemony among the Latin American intel-
lectuals, since they serve as a major recruit-
ing ground for the centre-left political class.
The relationship between the external
funders and the research institute-oriented
intellectuals is complex and subtle. There are
no ultimatums, and the degree of overt
political supervision is limited. There are
frequent meetings and exchanges of ideas
about suitable topics in which there appears
to be some degree of reciprocal influence.
Not infrequently, the funding agencies
announce their annual research priorities-a
highly politicised matter cloaked in social
science jargon. The research institute direc-
tors or entrepreneurs organise teams to
formulate proposals linking the local reality
to the proposed projects of their potential
benefactors.
Not infrequently the local research
funding agency.
entrepreneurs are able to anticipate the wants
and political needs of the overseas funders
and to argue cogently for their interests.
Thus the appearance of 'local autonomy' is
harnessed to the political projects of the
hegemonic powers. The incongruence of the
appearance of intellectual autonomy and the
deep economic dependence is both political-
ly and psychologically important. Without
financing intellectual existence. They lived
the appearance of autonomy the perv#sive
compilation of data on sensitive subjects
might be called into question.
The overt consequences of economic
dependence manifest themselves at the
ideological level, setting the political
parameters of intellectual discourse. Hence
the importance of retaining a semblance of
intellectual autonomy to dissimulate the
dependence. Critical research on popular
participation, grassroots organisation, in-
comes policies, etc, is essential in fostering
an image of intellectual autonomy, while the
dissociation of these conditions from their
imperial-class context further enforces the
long-term structural linkages to the external
benefactors.
The transformation of the Latin American
intellectuals centres on their incorporation
as research functionaries into institutes
dependent on external funding. Their work
requires them to provide information that
their benefactors would not otherwise
possess, and even more important, to cir-
culate and implant the ideas and concepts An apocryphal story occurred to me dur-the rank and file -political activists and
accepiable to their benefactors as the domi-ing my visit to Chile. A director of aresearchmilitants, with a global vision that chal-
nant ideology within the political class. centre invited his mother from the provinceslenged the boundaries of the bourgeois
to visit him in Santiago. He drove to the
CHANGING INTELLECTUAL PIVOT
airport in his new Peugeot to pick her up.
In the past Latin America possessed-iin
the best of cases-what Gramsci called
720 Economic and Political Weekly April 8, 1989
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'organic intellectuals' writers, journalists,
and political economists linked directly to
political and social struggles against im-
perialism and capitalism. They were integral
parts of trade unions, student movements,
or revolutionary parties. Che Guevara,
Camilo Torres in Colombia, Luis de la
Puente in Peru, Miguel Enriquez in Chile,
Roberto Santucho in Argentina, Julio Castro
in Uruguay, were a few of the hundreds if
not thousands of intellectuals who integrated
their intellectual work with the social strug-
gles of their countries. And the consequen-
tial organic intellectuals established the
norms of behaviour for the rest of the intel-
lectual class. For thousands of other intellec-
tuals the political and personal example of
the organic intellectuals served as a measur-
ing rod which they approximated to a greater
or lesser degree. There was a continual
'internal' struggle between professional
opportunism and political commitments, as
Latin American intellectuals strove to make
existential choices. This struggle no longer
exists-it has long been resolved and forgot-
ten among the new breed of research
institute-oriented intellectuals. The problem
now is how best to secure the biggest sum
of money from the most accessible outside
Today the institutionalised intellectuals are
in a Foucaultian sense prisoners of their own
narrow professional desires. Their links with
the external foundations, i'nternational
bureaucracies, and research centres domina,te
a vacuous and vicarious internal political
life. In the past the organic intellectuals
s,truggled with a self-sustaining, self-
and suffered the economic cycles of their
countries. Today the institutional intellec-
tuals live and work in an externally depen-
dent world, sheltered by payments in hard
currency and income derived independently
of local economic circumstances. The deep
internal horizontal linkages between the
organic intellectual and civil society con-
trasts with the vertical linkages between the
institutional intellectual and the external
funding agencies and, with the advent of
civilian regimes, with the local state and
regime.
The dictatorships indirectly created a new
class of 'internationally'oriented intellec-
tuals, ostensible critics of the neo-liberal
economic model, but just as deeply embed-
ded in dependent relations with overseas net-
works as their adversaries among the export-
oriented and financial elites. This new class
patrons, their international conferences, and
has a life and work style that contrastsas political ideologues establishing the
sharply with those of the preceding genera-
boundaries for the liberal political class. The
tions of organic intellectuals. organic intellectuals moved in the world of
liberal market place. Their work linked local
struggles in the mines, banks, and factories,
"Where did you get this beautiful car?" she
exclaimed as she observed all the gadgets on
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the dashboard.
"The Institute financed it. I need it for my
research to overthrow the dictatorship", he
answered.
When they arrived at his suburban home,
the mother gazed with wonder. "Where did
you get this beautiful house?"
"The Institute financed it. I need it for my
research to overthrow the dictatorship"
They entered the dining room, where din-
ner was waiting: a table covered with
shellfish, fowl, salads, fruit, and fine wine.
Eating heartily she. asked, "Where did you
get such an elaborate meal?"
"The Institute finances it. I need it for my
research to overthrow the dictatorship"
At which point, his mother plucked his
ear and whispered, "Be careful they don't
overthrow the dictatorship and you lose
everything".
And for those institutionAl intellectuals in-
side the international foundation circuit,
they do have a great deal to lose, but not in
the way of any profound commitments to
the popular struggle to transform the socio-
economic system. Today's institutional in-
tellectuals look with disdain at the previous
organic intellectuals-mere 'ideologists'
and look upon themselves as social scien-
tists. There is of course no such distinction
between science and ideology. The institu-
tional ideologists are just as ideologically-
oriented as their predecessors: their 'science'
is harnessed to a world of managed conflict,
electoral elites, private markets, and social
engineering. They are the ideological watch-
dogs who have banished the politics of anti-:
imperialism to the nether world of forgot->
ten languages. They have described their owne
metamorphosis as intellectual functionaries
as the culmination of a scientific revolution
that transcends vulgar and parochial ideo-
logical preoccupations. In the past, organic
intellectuals passionately debated ideas
because they.had direct consequences for
their own personal commitments and parti-
cipation. The institutional intellectuals
change their ideas as frequeptly as their
underwear. The posture of objectivity (the
necessary methodology for external accep-
tance) provides the proper distance from
which to observe the struggleE as objects to
be contracted, managed, and governed.
The problem of intellectual engagement
is related to the audience to which each is
directed: the institutional intellectual writes
for and works within the confines of other
institutional intellectuals, their overseas
as ~concrete instances of global imperialist
domination. They linked social discontent
to political struggles against, a clearly deter- political to an institutional vocation) the of state terror but of propensities for
mined class state. essence of politics is bureaucracy. The axis violence among slum dwellers, data useful
of politics revolves around narrow institu- for containing the popular insurgency.
NEW LANGUAGE CODES
tional interests, developing ties with the Ironically, it may be the external funding
The ascendancy of the institutional intel- chieftains of bureaucratic power centres. In agencies which return the intellectual to the
lectuals has banished the key concepts which this context the main intellectual concern is study of the relationship between class and
illuminated popular struggles: imperialism, the renovation of formalism and legalism state (and away from 'state'centred. ap-
socialism, popular power, and class strug- and the marginalisation of substantive proaches), as they become preoccupied with
gle have disappeared down the memory hole: politics. the new wave of class struggle. For example,
they are unfashionable. In place of these Political exhaustion (in the sense of tltretoday at least five externally-funded projects
precise formulations vacuous notions of incapacity or unwillingness to formulate a are studying Sendero Luminoso in Peru.
'popular participation', disembodied 'debt global vision) is reconstructed as political
During the military dictatorships the
problems', and 'social contracts' have sur- theory-a sanitised compilation of concepts
research institutes maintained an ambivalent
faced in the conceptual apparatus of the unrelated to historical struggles. There is no
position: they published studies attacking
institutional intellectuals. The new languagerelationship between the political options of
human rights violations, income inequa-
codes of the institutional intellectuals have the institutional intellectuals and the reality
lities, foreign debt payments, and the neo-
a double function: they provide the ideo- of Latin America in the 1980s. Under condi-
liberal economic accumulation pattern. At
logical watchdogs with the symbolic signals tions of absolute and sustained socio-
the same time the institutes couched their
to evict ideologicat trespassers, and they economic regression, of massive popular
political prescriptions in terms of political
legitimate in the intellectuals' own eyes their misery and growing social discontent, the
and social alliances (including as their coali-
role as caretakers of the hegemonic ideology language and conceptual practice of social
tion partners economic and military elites
of the liberal funding centres. Among insti- and political reconciliation are surreal. They
and western capitalist democracies) that ap-
tutes engaged in ideological diffusion do not reflect objective Latin American
peared to preclude the possibility of any con-
through popular promotion and training, realities; they mirror the reconciliation of the
sequential reforms. The research institute
the negative effects of this style of intellec- intellectual with the ideological parameters
intellectuals' ambiguous treatment of critical
tual work is magnified. In their promotional of overseas funding agencies.
socio-economic analysis together with their
activity among the popular classes, problem- In the more intellectually consequential
accommodations political prescriptions were
solving is localised and dissociated from any research centres there is a profound contra-
resolved with the transition to civilian elec-
notion of state power and the construction diction between the deep structural problems
toral regimes. In some countries like Argen-
of an alternative class-based vision of a that are rigorously discussed in great detail
tina and Brazil, the institutionalised intellec-
democratic collectivist society, the original and the superficial policies prescribed in
tuals became important officials in the elec-
and creative project of the organic intel- euphemistic bureaucratic language. The
toral civilian governments. These regimes,
lectuals. combination of socio-economic criticism
conditioned by their alliances with the
The conceptual and linguistic transforma- and inconsequential political definitions
military and economic elites, adapted to the
tion that accompanies the conversion of defines the dilemma of the best of Latin
pre-existing socio-economic structures and
organic to institutional intellectuals is America' institutional intellectuals.
followed policies similar to those of their
manifest in several distinct forms. The Whether this contradiction evokes per-
predecessors. In this context the institutional
politics of language is the language of sonal malaise among some institutional
intellectuals, including those occupying high
politics: as striking as what is written and. intellectuals is a matter of conjecture. For
positions in the regime as well as their peers
published by the institutes is what is absent. most, institutional operations are the domi-
who remained in the institute but who served
In the present period when the major nant reality in their everyday life. And for
as regime advisers, shifted their research
European and North American banks and those who operate within institute rules, the
agenda away from critical studies of in-
corporations are engaged in a massive and important world is the realm of the inter-
equalities, dependence, and power, toward
sustained extraction of economic surplus, national institute circuit. Prestige and
technocratic and developmental directions.
there is not a single externally-funded rewards revolve around the international
Their criticism was no longer directed at
research centre in Chile, Argentina, Peru, conference and the advanced research centre.
their colleagues in the regime and state but
Colombia, or Uruguay elaborating and Key international research entrepreneurs and
at the trade unions, social movements, and
deepening our understanding of the theory organisers of major multi-country research
political parties in civil society, pressuring
and practice of imperialist exploitation. projects are decisive figures in the world of
the regime to fulfil its electoral promises.
Instead, we find the language of evasion, the the institutional intellectual.
The most common and banal notion that
social science of euphemism: the problem
NEGATIVE ROLE MODELS informed the writing and occasional political
is posed as a balance of payment or 'debt
pronouncements of the institutional intellec-
problem' The institutional intellectuals The rapid and massive growth of the in-
tuals turned 'oficialistas' was 'the double
engage in an ingenuous and clever abstrac- stitutional intellectuals and their ascendancy
demon'. According to this idea, the civilian
tion of 'debt' from class politics and even in the 1980s obscures their increasing
electoral regime was threatened by the right-
more from class struggle. From their vantagevulnerability. The universalisation of private
wing military and the 'radical' or 'extremist'
positions there are only disembodied class- interests so apparent in their intellectual and
social mnovements. T institutional intellec-
less 'states' which negotiate with other personal lives provides no societal solutions
tuals resorted to amalgamating democratic
'states': the institutional intellectuals have and contributes to further fragmenting the
social movements that struggled and elected
created the metaphysics of post-politics. fabric of civil society. Their overvaluation
In its broadest sense the ascendancy of the of individual freedoms at the expense of col-
institutional intellectuals and the decline of lective social rights puts them in opposition
the organic intellectuals represents a cultural to rising social movements, with possible When corresponding with the
counter-revolution, a great leap backward. popular backlash over the long run. What
Circulation Department, subscri-
It is the world of the intellectual as 'inside has become central to the institutional intel-
political advisor'. the managers of political lectuals is the reproduction of their insti- bers are requested to mention their
conformity (or, in their language) of political tutes. With increasinig class conflict, it is subscription numbers.
consensus. For the repentent ex-radical intel- expected that their overseas patrons will de-
lectuals (those who converted from a mand clear political definitions- studies not

Economic and Political Weekly April 8, 1989 721

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civilian regimes with the military and
pararnilitary groups that were displaced.
This piece of intellectual dishonesty is
symptomatic of the advanced state of intel-
lectual.decay accompanying the conversion
of institutional intellectuals into state
functionaries.
The intellectuals in uniform cannot con-
front the crises of their liberal electoral
regimes and the failure of their policies of
social contract. To do so would require that
they move away from the ideological frame-
work that secures outside funding.
The institutional intellectual entrepreneurs
not only know how and where to get
abundant external funding, but they also
know the dangers involved in posing social
alternatives anchored in popular power to
the existing decaying liberal democracies.
Faced with this dileinma, the most con-
venient posture adopted is to claim that the
post-dictatorial situation is very difficult and
complex, and that there are no easy alter-
natives. This posture allows the institutional
intellectuals to continue to receive outside
grants while passing over the less attractive
features and policies of their colleagues in
the state.
Thus very soon after the transition to a
civilian regime the institutional intellectuals
shift from electoral celebration to political
consternation: as regime apologists, they
abdicate their responsibility as critical intel-
lectuals. The current crisis of liberal
democracy in Latin America is reflected in
the crisis of the institutional intellectual,
particularly as the outside aid agencies have
begun to seek and fund other institutes with
ties to the new ascending social forces.
Two diametrically opposed intellectual
types serve as the model for the new genera-
tion of the l990s-the organic intellectuals
of the 1960s and the institutional intellec-
tuals of the 1980s. The impact of the latter
on the present generation has been contra-
dictory: while they have imparted methodo-
logical skills, their theoretical and empirical
studies have been lodged in an ideological
context that provides an inadequate intellec-
tual terrain to develop a basis for engaging
in emnerging class struggles. Nevertheless, the
incapacity of the institutional intellectual to
provide adequate responses to the pressing
prob!ems confronting liberal-democratic
regimes has already set in motion the
formation of nuclei of young intellectuals
with ties to the political and, social
movements. The negative role model which
the institutional intellectuals provide for the
new generation of intellectuals is found in
the lifestyle and values that accompany their
research-international networking and
ambiguous political prescriptions. The
current crisis in Latin America mnay force
members of the new generation of intellec-
tuals who cannot be or choose not to be
absorbed by the system to fight against it
and to reconstitute themselves through
organic ties to popular movements.
CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Prasantnagar Road. Ulloor, Trivandrum 695 011.
The Centre for Development Studies invites applicatioxis for
appointment to academic positions at all levels (Fellows, Associate Fellows,
Research Associates) under the UNFPA Sponsored International Training
Programme.
Fellows/Associate Fellows:
Essential: A creditable academic record with a Ph. D degree in Econ
or Demography, and the ability to teach courses in areas such as Ec
Analysis and Planning, Population Policies and Programmes, Meth
Integrated Economic-Demographic Projections, Regional Planning
Urbanization, or Employment and Manpower Planning, as well as
research interest on the interlinkages between Population and
Development.
Applicants for Fellows posts should have a minimum of 10 years
experience (or 7 years experience for Associate Fellows) of teaching post
graduate classes, experience in research guidance and outstanding research
publications (like monographs or articles in journals of international
repute). We are looking for persons with a high degree of theoretical and
analytical competence. Those with strong inter-disciplinary interests,
historical perspectives and qualities of academic and organisational leader-
ship will be preferred.
Research Associates:
Essential: Candidates should be below 30 years of age, with a cr
academic record, preferably a Ph.D degree, in Economics or Demo
We are looking for caqdidates vith the ability to teach classes a
workshops and tutorials in demography, statistics, economic anal
planning. Candidates with ability to teach on some aspects of the
between population and development, i.e. education, health, em
ment, manpower planning, regional planning, population policies
banization will be preferred. In addition to the above, duties wil
providing assistance to the teaching staff in preparing teaching ma
participation in field study visits, and in research projects.
The above posts are under the International Training Program
Population and Development and appointments will be made ini
on a term contract for two years. Selected candidates may also
deputation.
Other Posts:
There may also be some positions available to the regular f
the Centre. We are looking for candidates with good backgr
economic theory and quantitative methods and proven abili
quality applied economic research. These appointments w
probation for one year, extendable to a.second year if found
The general qualifications will be the same as above. The numb
to be filled will depend on the funding position of the Cen
on the Centre's specific teaching and research needs.
The salary scales attached to the posts are in accordanc
Central University pattern as follows:
Fellow : Rs. 4500-1,50-5700-200-7300
Associate Fellow : Rs. 3700-12 5-4700-150-5300
Research Associate: Rs. 2200-75-2800-100-4000
Applications in the prescribed form available on request to reach the
Director by June 5, 1989. Candidates from abroad may send applications
on plain paper giving their bio-data and indicating the post for which
they are applying.
DIRECTOR

722 Economic and Political Weekly April 8, 1989

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